Orioles’ Mancini, Mountcastle win Comeback Player, Rookie awards

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• Congrats to both! I think that Mancini winning was a no brainer but still great for both of them

• How many ROY awards does the Sporting News give out? Their AL ROY was supposedly Garcia from Texas, at least on their site….go O’s…

  • The Sporting News gives out one ROY award. Repeating a sentence from the article above "Mountcastle was named American League Rookie of the Year in the Players’ Choice awards." Mountcastle won the MLBPA Player's Choice AL ROY award.

• The players obviously know best. Mountcastle is the best choice for ROY.

  Now can/will the writers vote him in for the real award?

• I still can't believe Cedric Mullins wasn't picked to be a finalist for the Gold Glove in centerfield this year. Dude was robbed! He was absolutely stellar out there.

• Way to go M&Ms!! I don’t see how Mancini couldn’t have won but RM winning the Players Choice Rookie of the Year is fantastic. The players know best. I’m not slighting the Sporting News because I think it’s been a terrific magazine/site forever but I’m also gonna say like so many things now, it’ll tend to lean away from RM over Garcia, and not based on strictly baseball reasons. Again, I’ll reiterate, the players know best.

• This should be the real rookie of the year. Players know best, not a bunch of guys who never played above little league!

  • I agree. Maybe the players should start choosing our starting pitchers and relievers. But very happy for Mancini and Mountcastle, great job by each!

  • I am one of those guys who never played above Little League and take my voting responsibility seriously, though I did not vote on Rookie of the Year this year.

• My guess is that mountcastle has very little chance of the actual Roy award due to the lack of press that comes with playing with the worst team in baseball.

  • BirdsCaps, as far as I’m concerned he DID just win the “actual” RoY award. To me, if I were a player, an award voted to me by my peers would mean SO much more than one that a bunch of woke sports “journalists” vote for.

  • Totally agree DL…go O’s…

  • David, I am one of those “journalists” that vote on the awards. I’m sorry you and your fellow readers choose to demean me that way. I work very hard at what I do and take my responsibility in voting for awards seriously. I have tried to answer your questions and comments seriously, and regret that you and your fellow readers feel the way you do.

    • Rich, thanks for your regular and timely updates. Good too that you called out those who have criticized your integrity, along with your colleagues, simply because you did not see things the way they do. Many folks, including me, think that the writers are less biased than the players, when examining performance more objectively.

  • Thank you, Phil. As part of my preparation for awards voting, I’ve always sought out players’ opinions because they do know a lot. In the past, J.J. Hardy, Adam Jones and Matt Wieters were great sources on opposing players prior to voting.

    It’s fine for the players to have their own vote, but they can’t vote for their teammates. I think the process is fine the way it is.

  • Rich, I apologize to you. If I felt that you were one of the woke sports “journalists” that I referred to then I’d have stopped reading this site long ago. I’ve never felt that you’ve tried to push your political beliefs onto your readers. Sadly tho, many in your profession do just that. I read this site because I find it refreshing that I can just read about my favorite team and not be belittled because I’m, as I proudly tell people, so far right I’m left. Believe me when I say I was not aiming that comment at you. Again, I apologize to you. Actually, I don’t have a clue what your own personal political leanings are, and I don’t care or want to know. That’s the way it should be when I read about sports.

    • I think all Orioles fans are pleased to see Mountcastle get recognition ... But are you seriously claiming that sportswriters who support a player other than Mountcastle for ROY are doing so based on a political agenda? If so, please explain how a political agenda is advanced through a ROY vote.

  • Thank you, David.

  • Birdman, it’s very simple, it’s undeniable right now that our culture is, for whatever reason, demonizing white males. In doing so, yes, there are those in sports journalism who I believe would in fact vote for a “person of color” who may be less deserving than RM for the award. That is precisely how that occurs. Having said all that I’ve said, he’s the ironic thing. If I myself had a vote, I’d probably vote for Wander Franco. Tho I’m sure his not playing the entire season will stop some from voting for him, I believe he was the best rookie in all MLB this past season.

    • You make a good point DL.

      I'll leave it at that .... except...how in the wide wide world of sports can you justify voting for a player with only ½ a year played over Mountcastle or Arozarena?

      Drink Pepsi.

  • BRR, I must not have been clear enough. I simply think Franco was the best rookie I saw in all MLB this past season. I did say he will lose votes because of how late he was called up. I’d love to see RM win and I think he’s very deserving of it, but Franco just amazed me with his stellar play after, like RM, getting off to a somewhat slow start once he was called up. By the end of the season and while Rays were in the postseason, I thought he was the best player on the diamond. If AR, who succeeded Franco as the #1 prospect, can even come close to him I’m sure we O’s fans are in for a treat.

• Rich…I read your articles every day. They are always very professional and a great read. Keep up the great work

  • Thank you, millboy.

• Get off my lawn gang strikes again

• Typical of the times, didn’t read anyone name calling, difference of an opinion, we’ll agree to disagree, but my gut tells me the players are more in tune with the game on a daily basis than media…go O’s…

  • Didn't read anyone name calling?? "a bunch of guys who never played above little league" ... "a bunch of woke sports 'journalists' "

  • Not names, good lord, people are so friggin touchy today, maybe you should fly American Airlines…lol…:)…go O’s…

    • Despite your "lol" references, you're not actually funny ... just pompous.

  • To be insulted I would have to value your opinion, I don’t….go O’s…

    • Watch out now bra ..next thing you know, you'll be deemed a racist.

• Mountcastle to me illustrates what the Orioles as an organization should be doing . They get a good player and developed him . They resisted the great unwashed cries for him to come up and kept him in the minors until he was ready . They then had enough confidence in him that when he struggled (he did hit into a lot of loud outs) they kept running him out there.

  He has improved on defense as well as at the plate and I thought played an above average first base .

  • How do you know he wasn't ready 2 years ago? Seriously ... how do you know?

    All he did then was crush and dominate the Internation league on his way to league MVP? IMO....holding him back most likely didn't do any good other than help the team lose an extra couple of games in the race to the top of the draft board.

• As one of "the great unwashed" --not that it's name-calling or ad hominem--, may I point out that Mountcastle has greatly improved offensively as well as defensively since he has been allowed to face Major League competition. An athlete has to face the toughest competition he can handle in order to improve. I'm sure that last season, in their heart of hearts, many who disagree with my ilk wanted Mountcastle to stick to DHing or to be sent down for a year or two to learn how to play first base. I commend you, mp, for acknowledging his increasing prowess at first base. Also, my ilk never lost confidence in him; the organization kept him up because they had no real options after his breakout year.

• Congratulations to Trey and Ryan. I too believe that Ryan should get the Sporting News ROY and Cedric a Gold Glove but the voting isn’t up to me. I have voiced a political opinion or too on this sight but have since joined the”Why can’t we all get along!”crowd. Rich, you do an amazing job and this is one of the few sights I rely on for Orioles coverage. Let’s keep it totally on sports and leave the right or wrong of things to other venues. Keep up the good work

  • Thank you, McMillan. Nice to have you on our site.

• Great read, always good to see O’s players recognized in a positive light. Its just a shame that there are folks who would take good news, and somehow make it negative… Why do these people look for any reason to take jabs at others, like the media, or other readers. Can’t we all just enjoy the ROY recognition no matter how he got it or who voted for it? Go O’s

  • Thank you, Gary.

  • Here's hoping that ROY goes to Ryan Mountcastle!!! From a position of strictly offensive numbers excluding his BA he was really good. If he batted in the .300's, I think he would win the award hands down!!! A .255 BA is not a accolade for being a great hitter!!! His defense and his pitch recognition and swing selection/strikeouts is what kept him in the minors. Trying to learn to play left field and STOP CHASING pitches were HUUUUUUUUUUUUGE reasons!!! And to some degree still are. So he probably will never be mistaken for a gold glove award winner either.

    Now all that being said, I do believe he will get better at pitch recognition and hopefully becomes a solid .280's hitter, if he works really hard at it maybe a .300 hitter. The free swinging/chasing pitches are bad habits he just needs to stop. Pitchers were making him get himself out because of this. First base seems to be his best position, but he needs a lot of work there too. Repetitions on doing things correctly have to be priority one if he expects his fielding to be a lot better. His footwork, fielding ground balls, starting double plays and chasing pop ups are all on the menu for him. But with a lot of work, he could become a solid fielder! It's just too bad he's learning at the Major League level costing the Orioles games and not to mention his clock. Moving him to first should have been done when the Orioles drafted him. This was the knock on him back then. You can all look it up!!! This was another of a long line of huge mistakes done done under the Dan Duquette regime!!! Just think how good he would be at first base if they did this after he was drafted!